Another birthday—do they get closer together each year?

My old friend Carla surprised me with a nice birthday message on her blog today. It was such a sweet message from a dear person, although I am not sure I can quite forgive her for the 30 year old picture of me that she posted!

This was not nearly as traumatic a birthday as last year—I was trying hard to be cool, but, gulp, 60 was a shock to the system. It is a glorious spring day today and I started the day with my usual walk with Beth, then we went to Gerrie's for a meeting of our small quilt group, STASH, followed by lunch and sinful desserts at Papa Haydn. It was so beautiful we sat outdoors and drank in the good company, great food and incredible April-ness of the day. What a gift these women are in my life!

Then I got a visit from my daughter and granddaughter who brought me a card and gorgeous, deliciously fragrant Easter lily. Sofia, however, had just eaten and had fallen into a slack-jawed, rag-doll milk coma and could not manage to open her eyes long enough to have her picture taken.

And finally, here is a shot of my birthday present from Ray.

I had been admiring the red shoes that Lesley Riley kept showing in her blog photos of her trip to New Zealand and finally emailed her and asked if they were comfortable and what the brand was. She emailed back and raved about them. Then last weekend when Muriel was here, we walked into a new little shoe shop in my neighborhood and there they were, as if it had been meant to be—but SO expensive. When I expressed my longing for these wonderful shoes, Ray jumped on that and declared that they would be my birthday present. He loves it when he doesn't have to go out and search for something.

Another birthday down and on to the next year. It has been a good one.